” Federal employees owed more in delinquent taxes last year than any year in the past decade, costing the Internal Revenue Service $1.4 billion in 2014.

The 113,805 civilian government employees who declined to pay all of their taxes last year would be ineligible to work for federal agencies under a House bill introduced last week that would hold officials accountable for evading taxes.

Four in 100 federal employees owed the IRS last year, according to the tax agency’s annual delinquency report released Tuesday.

Among cabinet-level agencies, the Department of Veterans Affairs had the highest rate of tax delinquency, with 15,476 of its employees evading all or part of their taxes in 2014.

VA staff collectively owed nearly $162 million in back taxes, the report said.”

” Americans have had it with foreign diplomats breaking U.S. laws and then receiving a “get out of jail free” pass, according to a new poll that shows overwhelming opposition to the practice of giving lawbreakers stationed at the United Nations and Washington embassies diplomatic immunity.

The new YouGov poll bolsters the State Department’s Dec. 12 arrest and strip search of a top Indian diplomat charged with falsifying visa information for her Indian maid and paying her pauper’s wages of $600 a month despite promises of $4,500 a month.

The prosecution of Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general in New York City, has roiled U.S.-India relations. Images of President Obama have been burned in New Delhi, but the State Department isn’t backing off. Khobragade has denied the charges, even claiming that her maid had tried to blackmail her.”